Jealous Guys Noah Baumbach and Eric Stoltz

Jealous Guys Noah Baumbach and Eric Stoltz

What does it take to make it in the land of independent filmmaking?Luck? Talent? Brains? A good personality? One thing is for sure — ittakes more than just a good film. Do you need to be driven by shamelessambition? Married to somebody famous? Have the recipe for some magicalconcoction that includes all of the above?

Noah Baumbach, director of “Mr. Jealousy,” which opens in New York andLA this Friday, attributes his recent good fortune in the film biz to acombination of ambition and naivete. When I asked him what he consideredthe key to his success, he replied with a story about his collegeinterview at Brown, a school he didn’t get into. The interviewer askedwhat he wanted to do with his life, and he replied proudly, “‘I want towrite, direct, and star in my own movies.’ And then when I graduatedfrom Vassar, I decided that now was the time that I write and directmovies. At the time I thought there was no way I could fail. I thinkbeing naive and ambitious at the same time is a huge help, because youonly know the possibilities, or at least you think you know thepossibilities. The pitfalls don’t show themselves.” This from the guywho also had a story published in “The New Yorker” when he was a merebright-eyed college grad.

Baumbach’s first film “Kicking and Screaming” was released in 1995,after its premiere at the New York Film Festival. He’d written thescreenplay immediately following college graduation. Then in 1996, hewas named one of Newsweek’s “Ten New Faces of 1996.” Baumbach hadalready started thinking about “Mr. Jealousy” before he made “Kickingand Screaming.” In fact, he’s been nursing the idea for the last nineyears. He says, “It was always exactly the movie I wanted to make next.It was like–I’m making ‘Kicking and Screaming’ and then I’ll make ‘Mr.Jealousy.’ I was gearing up for it, and ever since that was finished Iwas constantly trying to get this financed and then making it. I neverreally stopped to think.”

“Mr. Jealousy,” a Lion’s Gate release, tells the story of Lester Grimm,played by Eric Stoltz, a man in his early thirties who is plagued byirrational jealousy every time he is involved with a woman. Hisparticular affliction is an overwhelming obsession with his girlfriends’past lovers. Baumbach, who claims that the film is only autobiographical“in an abstract way,” believes that men have a hard time dealing withthe fact that their girlfriend might have “a sexier past than you have.Like when I was sixteen and had my first girlfriend, she’d already goneout with someone who was twenty-five. And I’d barely made eye contactwith a girl. A lot of men haven’t gotten over that, and they’re wellinto their thirties.”

In Lester’s case, he becomes fixated on the ex-lovers of his girlfriendRamona (Annabella Sciorra) to the point that he joins the therapy groupof her ex-boyfriend, best-selling novelist Dashiell Frank (ChrisEigeman). He poses as his best friend, Vince (Carlos Jacott) whoseproblems he starts confessing in order to find out what’s so great aboutex-boyfriend Dashiell. This behavior might seem particularly obnoxious,but both director and star feel that this craziness can be seen as anatural progression of the usual jealous urges that relationships ofteninspire. Eric Stoltz explains, “We’ve all been in a relationship wherethe partner has had more experience, and I think for the guy that’s muchmore uncomfortable. And rather than sit back and enjoy the benefits ofher previous erotic encounters, I took the opposite tack and startedacting foolishly, obsessively, and much comedy ensues.”

Of course the whole scheme blows up in Lester’s face, when everyoneinvolved learns what a pathetic sneak he is. Along the way, there aresome hilarious conversations about the relationship game and interestinginsights into the ugly green monster that’s hounding the poor schmuck. Agreat cast, especially indie stars Sciorra and Stoltz, lendbelievability to a film that could otherwise have amounted to an urbantall tale. Stoltz even admits jokingly that in real life, “I became alittle obsessed (with Annabella). I had a little crush. I became alittle curious about her ex-s and her life. That’s what we do. That’swhat I do. There’s a point where you know this is a job and you don’tbring it home. But basically one of our jobs is to fall in love with theperson that we are falling in love with on film.” Part of the film’seffectiveness lies in Lester’s credibility as a character. Even as he liesto Ramona, deceives Dashiell along with his entire therapy group, andotherwise acts like a complete creep, he remains a sympathetic character,because we understand what drives Lester’s lunacy.

“Mr. Jealousy” has an interesting premise, but not that much moreinteresting than scores of other dialogue happy independent films aboutyoung New Yorkers struggling with life and love and ultimatelytranslating that struggle into art. This particular film, however,attracted a couple of stars and a distribution deal, which supports thetheory that Noah Baumbach has a guardian angel out there somewhere.

No sooner had Baumbach’s second film “Mr. Jealousy” wrapped thanBaumbach shot “Highball,” a comedy about three parties in one year, thatLion’s Gate will also release. He just used the cast and crew from “Mr.Jealousy” and shot the film in one location in six days. Baumbachexplains, “It’s always easier to keep shooting than it is to break downand start up again. And you’re in such a flow that you think anything ispossible.” This is definitely becoming a theme. The man has super-humanfaith and self-confidence, he has some talented friends who connecttheir names to the projects, and voila — movies happen, distributorspay attention, a career evolves.

Noah Baumbach now claims to recognize the difficulties associated withfilmmaking, even if he hasn’t been their victim. He admits, “I don’tthink it’s possible to get your first movie made without being woken upto how hard it is to get a movie made.” He says of “Mr. Jealousy,”“Hey, this film could tank.” And quickly knocks wood.